Leinster v Munster: Five takeaways as ‘inspired’ Jack Crowley serves up ‘masterclass’ ahead of Ireland versus All Blacks

Liam Heagney
Leinster v Munster: Five takeaways as 'inspired' Jack Crowley serves up 'masterclass' ahead of Ireland versus All Blacks

Tom Farrell dives at the Leinster line on a night when Jack Crowley, inset, was a Munster inspiration

Here are our five takeaways from Croke Park following a surprise 31-14 bonus point win for Munster over Irish rivals Leinster in their Saturday evening United Rugby Championship fixture.

The top line

What is rare is wonderful in sport, and this win by Munster – just their fourth in 25 league encounters against a Leinster team with Leo Cullen as head coach since 2015 – was a delicious riposte served icily cold just three days after Andy Farrell named a 34-man Ireland squad consisting of 21 Leinster players and a measly four from Munster.

A penny for your thoughts now, Andy. Apart from their scrum, Munster were tremendous value for their 17-point, four tries to two success, and it will be a real badge of honour for them that Leinster’s much vaunted attack was held scoreless for 74 minutes after the hosts had taken the lead with a seventh-minute converted Ronan Kelleher maul try.

No one would have guessed it at the time, but Leinster weren’t to score again until the final play in the 81st minute, Scott Penny grabbing a consolation long after numerous home fans had called it a night and had exited their seats.

With Munster skipper Tadhg Beirne a breakdown nuisance, out-half Jack Crowley produced a man-of-the-match effort that included his outrageous chip kick assist to usher Tom Farrell to the line on 24 minutes.

That gave Munster the lead, as they had already hit back through a Brian Gleeson try, and their superb first half was complete when rookie scrum-half Ethan Coughlan picked off a Jamison Gibson-Park on the 22 and raced down the other end to score.

It was a play reminiscent of that time in a 2009 European Cup semi-final when Brian O’Driscoll burgled Ronan O’Gara to race away – only this one favoured Munster and the 21-7 interval scoreline set Leinster an intriguing challenge that was quite a contrast to what happened a year ago at Croke Park when the hosts had a non-event game in the bag with three tries in the opening 15 minutes.

Leinster’s climb got more difficult with the 43rd-minute exit of the injured RG Snyman and Crowley’s long-range 49th-minute penalty. That left it 24-7, and the score remained that way until the frantic finish that featured a 76th-minute penalty try for Munster and a yellow card for Ciaran Frawley, followed by Penny’s consolation.

Munster player ratings: Jack Crowley outclasses Sam Prendergast in emphatic win while ‘superhuman’ Tadhg Beirne stars

Sam versus Jack

So much commentary in the build-up focused on the head-to-head clash at out-half between Leinster’s Sam Prendergast and Munster’s Crowley. It was Prendergast who usurped Crowley as the Ireland No.10 last November after head coach Farrell took a dislike to how Crowley fared in the role as the starter in the Dublin defeat to New Zealand.

Despite much criticism, Prendergast held the jersey when Simon Easterby and Paul O’Connell were interim Six Nations and July tour head coaches in Farrell’s absence, but there should now be no debate that Crowley deserves to be the starting out-half in Chicago when Ireland play New Zealand again on November 1.

He produced an all-round masterclass at Croke Park in contrast to the dithering Prendergast, who looked a complete novice on the night.

Whereas Crowley was handing his team momentum with nearly every contribution he made, it was noticeable that Gibson-Park only seemed to seek out Prendergast as a last resort when it came to passing the ball to him.

Crowley’s stand-out moment was his kicked assist to set up Tom Farrell for his first half-try, but there were plenty of other highlights, including a monster long-range penalty into Hill 16 despite the tricky conditions.

In comparison, Prendergast had multiple dud contributions: for instance, check out his lame duck kick on 31 minutes that led to Munster calling an easy mark.

You could tell as soon as he missed touch with a 12th-minute penalty clearance kick that Prendergast was miles off, and it showed the whole way through, even in the second half with Leinster hunting a score to ignite the comeback that never materialised.

No question about it, Crowley must start for Ireland at Soldier Field. His performance in this derby was the irrefutable selection evidence.

Tom Farrell’s menace

With Leinster now wallowing in 12th place on the URC table after three defeats in four rounds and Munster leading the way at the top with four wins, the full-time bragging rights would have been very sweet for the Croke Park visitors.

Normally, the Ireland autumn Test squad gets named after this derby, but with the schedule starting early with the November 1 meeting with the All Blacks in the USA, head coach Farrell went early and was left with egg on his face that gave 21 places to Leinster players and just four to Munster.

It’s a situation reminiscent of 2016 when Joe Schmidt went early with his Irish squad to tour South Africa. His overemphasis on Leinster only fed into the overlooked Connacht’s determination to prove a point with their PRO12 final ambush that following weekend in Edinburgh.

One Munster player whose form is certainly being ignored is their midfielder Farrell, the scorer of the majestic try that gave them their lead at Croke Park. It was the summer of 2024 when he made the move south from Connacht, and his contribution since then has been immense.

Included in the 2024/25 URC Dream Team, he has continued that excellence into this new season and would have felt he had a point to prove over his latest Irish snub.

Yes, he turned 32 earlier this month and is uncapped, but that lack of pedigree didn’t hold him back in this derby. Pitted against a partnership of Garry Ringrose and Robbie Henshaw, who left the field subdued on 57 minutes, Farrell menacingly looked the part.

Of course, it would have been a longshot for him to dislodge the established trio of Ringrose, Henshaw or Bundee Aki from the Irish squad, but he will rightly still feel peeved that Ulster’s Stuart McCloskey was included ahead of him.

Based on this all-action performance, which would have seen a second try credited to him but for Frawley’s yellow-carded penalty try tackle, Farrell is having the time of his life but hasn’t made the Ireland cut as selection was done on reputation and not current form.

The Leinster scrum

In a week where eight of the nine front row forwards named in the Ireland squad were from Leinster, it was time that the effort of their scrum against Munster was the only part of their performance that functioned to an acceptable level.

The set-piece won three scrum penalties during the early stages when it seemed as if they could run away with the match, and that pressure continued despite the loss of Paddy McCarthy to an early injury.

British and Irish Lions loosehead Andrew Porter was a handy sub to have – not only at the scrum where there was another penalty in the 54th minute, but also look at his penalty-winning poach at the early second-half ruck that Munster prop Michael Milne carried to.

Leinster, though, couldn’t use this set-piece dominance to best effect, and it was significant that at a scrum with about 25 minutes to go that they were finally shunted backwards and Beirne came up with a treasured turnover near his own line.

Leinster player ratings: Several Ireland stars ‘fail to fire’ in crushing defeat but front-row demolishes Munster

Munster’s fresh blood

There is nothing like fresh blood to stir up a squad, and you can’t help but be impressed by the way new Munster boss Clayton McMillan has gone about his job.

The Kiwi used 35 different players across his opening three matches, and when it came to selecting for this derby, he didn’t shy away from including youngsters such as Edwin Edogbo and Brian Gleeson in his pack.

Those two certainly came into this fixture without the baggage of always losing to Leinster, and it showed in the level of their respective displays – even though neither was involved in the second half.

It was Gleeson who got Munster on the board when burrowing at the line from the second phase of a tapped penalty, and his all-round physicality was important in his 28 minutes before exiting with a left arm injury.

While Edogbo wasn’t perfect – there was one annoying knock-on early on in the Leinster 22 – he also gave it socks during the 40 minutes that he played before being subbed off at the break.

Munster fans will be salivating at what these two youngsters might now go on to achieve over the winter. Also, keep an eye on the progress of rookie scrum-half Coughlan. His energy was a terrific watch here.

READ MORE: Brian O’Driscoll claims Jack Crowley ‘less authoritative’ than ‘timid’ Sam Prendergast

 

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